Specialty: Bad Names

May 23, 1986

ORLANDO, primarily through its daily newspaper, is the only place I've worked in the last 35 years that tries to make itself look good by giving other places bad names.

When Pittsburgh was selected as the nation's most livable city, the Sentinel had several days of fun at its expense. Columnist Bob Morris treats Ohio and Northerners uncomfortable in the South as jokes. And many are familiar with what columnist Charley Reese thinks of some of the ''black holes'' of Pennsylvania as a result of his Rust Belt series.

Now the Sentinel's Howard Means takes his little shot, this time at Detroit. That's a place I know, because I worked there throughout the '70s. I visit that city two or three times a year. I doubt I'll make such visits to Orlando when I am forced to leave this city unless there is a change in human climate in Orlando.

Means' only compliments are for parts of the ''Ren Cen hard core'' business center. And he certainly shows a feel for some of the places there (''Detroit is a stripped-down city, a clunker with some chrome''). He cites Elmore Leonard, Detroit novelist, and title-drops him, but forgets to mention the writer also has as much to say about malled-over Florida as he does about Motown.

Leonard, however, knows about characters, people. There Means should take lessons because Henry Ford II is the only name he seems to know in the Motor City. Even then, he fails to note how well that private enterpriser works with four-term Mayor Coleman Young.

Detroit is a place where black and white work together to make a city happen, where Puerto Rican U.S. citizens and other Spanish-speaking Latinos do not have to defend themselves against demands to speak ''English only'' officially, as they do in communities in Florida.